Visualization components include components for applications that allow users, such as software developers, to visualize and display data in meaningful ways. Generally, the types of items that can be displayed by visualization components are usually limited to a pre-defined set of items that are defined by the visualization component. In order to display other items that are not pre-defined and allow a user to interact with those items, some visualization components allow developers to import other images for display. However, the visualization component needs a mechanism for importing these images and converting them into interactive display objects that can be shown in the visualization component.
Previously, visualization components dealt with the issue of importing and converting items in one of two ways, both of which have shortcomings. Some visualization components import only certain types of data for display (e.g., a mapping component may only be able to accept certain types of geographic data). Under this restriction, the visualization component may be able to turn each item in the import data into an interactive display item (e.g., each province or state outlined in the map). However, this feature would be limited to only certain types of objects for display.
Another approach is to import an arbitrary image and allow the arbitrary image as a whole to be interactive. This approach is limiting when the image has different parts and an application developer wants each part to be interactive (e.g., in the case of a schematic that shows how to assemble a complex car engine). Therefore, these approaches are not suitable for all situations.